Deus Ex: Human RevolutionComplete. Fun, a worthy successor to the original Deus Ex. I have some nitpicks but on the whole, it's solid. Played non-lethally focusing on stealth usually, but would usually go on killing sprees for fun then reload of course like I imagine many people do.
Since criticism is more interesting than praise, said nitpicks...
* Pacifist counts the tutorial mission? Where you only have a deadly weapon and you are the security chief and armed intruders are massacring your employees? Blargh. Pacifist is cool for the other missions where Jensen is playing a bit more aggressive and fighting more morally neutral foes, but meh, missed out on the Achievement thanks to not knowing this and only deciding to play non-lethally when it became a serious option.
* Same note as above - DE:HR strangely doesn't give you any stats to show how you dealt with your opposition. I'd at least like a simple death counter (other than 0 / not 0 from Pacifist). Alpha Protocol carefully details all your kills & takedowns & alarms & all after every mission; MGS games at least give you an end-of-game recap and a title based on your style; Iji has different dialogue between never-kill and mostly never kills and kills and psychotically wipes the map clean.
* Invisibility. In a game with stealth. For SEVEN SECONDS. Eat a candy bar, get 14 seconds. This is broke'd even for a straight combat run - eschew takedowns, and simply turn invisible and run next to guards and zap them with the stun gun or head shot 'em with a silenced pistol. (Certainly helped out in the save Malik mission.)
* Just like Mass Effect 2 decided to be a medium-range cover shooter too often when it could have been more, DE:HR decides to be a sneak-past-or-shoot guards patrolling set areas too often. The Malik mission was great - enemies are attacking everywhere, and you're under time pressure. This kind of mix-up can make for a great game, but DE:HR sticks to the patrolling guards too much. A good example: the Alice Garden Pods event. This had the potential to be totally badass AND interesting - raiding guards are coming for your location. You need to either GTFO and start stealthing it up against an alerted foe searching for your charge, or else set up some kind of defensive position and start picking off the attackers, possibly trying to avoid getting pinned in one place. Additionally, you have a civilian you're trying to protect, and there are other civilians scattered about. You can of course throw around explosives and shoot wildly and maybe get some "collateral damage" that isn't your problem, but if you feel like trying to be moral, you can do that as well. Of course none of this is what actually happened. Your charge magically disappears, all the civilians have either disappeared or are dead (WTF?! This is the Tai Yong Medical's own employees when they are on a super-tight deadline of 1 week of rush jobs!), and soldiers are patrolling set areas except for where you start and not particularly interested in coming for you and forcing you to make some desperate stand or escape or anything. You! Blew! It! It would have been friggin' great to see the enemy doom squad running one way while I give 'em the slip, OR to meet the enemy doom squad head-on in glorious combat, and instead we awkwardly got the "raid" team spread out on patrol of their occupied crash hotel. Which was still fine, to be sure, but it's the same friggin' gameplay I'd expect for the usual me-raiding-unsuspecting-them at this point. It's easy to make stealth tempting: have an air vent or hackable panel to get around the enemies. Make combat tempting or hard to avoid sometimes, too.
* The plot was fine and there was definitely some interesting characters, but the enemies are a tad underwhelming. The post-credits ending to DE:HR was surprisingly great, and part of that was hearing Bob Page's voice actor ham it up again. Page is a charismatic megalomaniac who was fun to hate in DE. DE:HR lacks a similar presence. Taggart, Sandoval, Reed, & Darrow are played for at least some sympathy. !Anna, !Gunther, & Southern bot aren't former colleagues and don't really have dialogue; they're just straight heavies you must fight. The closest DE:HR has is Zhao for scenery-chewing bad girls you want to settle up with, but she just doesn't have enough plot presence & screentime to qualify.
On the bright side...
* The ending ending was an amusing continuity nod! ANd included
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMzHzmdolRU , hehe.
* I have to say that the direction that the final act of the game went totally caught me off guard. Which was interesting, since conspiracy fiction is usually totally predictable for me.
* I'm not one of the whiners about the boss battles; I liked 'em. Mix things up, give me a challenge; if I have to fight the battle 10 times to defeat it, that's okay because I saved right outside the door. I guess people who are terrible at shooters didn't like they actually had to shoot for these, but you should have stuck the difficulty setting on Easy then. (Whining about the Alpha Protocol boss battles makes more sense, mostly because your skill build is super-important in AP, and the stealth skills are nearly worthless in boss battles there. But stealth isn't totally worthless in DE:HR boss battles, and there's really only one relevant straight-combat upgrade in Dermal Armor, so it's not like you can get stuck with a misbuilt character.)
* Replaying the game bloodily on hard difficulty going on killing sprees sounds pretty fun.
Growlanser: The Wayfarer of TimeOkay. So. In a ruined village, and - a shocking sight. An old colleague & ally, someone who was surely, 100% dead - killed by a massive blast that leveled an entire town - suddenly appears again. Alive. How does / can our silent-but-with-a-lot-of-player-input hero react? I, SnowFire, might propose the following as rational, dramatic possibilities, any or all of which at once make sense:
* Delirious happiness. It's a miracle! What was lost has been found. What was dead, is now alive. Give her a huge hug, break down in tears, and immediately set to throwing a party.
* Madness. Am I seeing things? Have I finally gone crazy? Does the world even make sense anymore? WHAT IS GOING ON? TELL ME! Break down in tears sobbing at the ground wondering WTF is going on and if anybody can explain anything.
* Paranoia. There's no way she could have escaped that blast. Unless she was IN on it. Maybe she knew in advance. Maybe the explosion was part of her plan, and she cruelly massacred all those other innocents. What's your excuse? How exactly do you claim to have survived the attack? Do you have any proof? Or... maybe she DID die, and you're some kind of imposter or doppleganger. Who are you?
The game's actual options, abridged:
* Greet her via touching her breasts?
No.
* Are you sure? You have the option again. Bury your face in her breasts!
...
...
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Japan. Catering to pathetic shut-ins again. You are
on notice.
